Spillover

The ethnic cleansing, genocide, and violence is spilling over into neighboring Chad. Sudan has tried to keep the UN out of this matter claiming that this was an internal matter. No longer:

Sudanese Janjaweed militia and Chadian rebels have attacked at least 10 villages in southeast Chad in the past two weeks, killing over 100 people and displacing more than 3,000, local and U.N. officials say.

The attacks are part of a spillover of violence from Sudan's western Darfur region, where violence has increased as seasonal riverbeds dry out after annual rains, becoming passable to rebel jeeps and Janjaweed on horses or camels.

"First we were attacked by local Chadian Arabs and the Janjaweed," said Usman Mucktar Hassan, sitting exhausted and dusty after fleeing his devastated village of Djimese Djarma.

"They came on horseback and used M14s to shoot at us. We managed to fight them off for a few days, but then they sent in the rebels. The rebels came in their Toyotas. They had heavy arms like bazookas. They killed many people," he said.

Where is the line to be drawn? How many hundreds of thousands more will be killed because the UN refuses to act to uphold its own charter and the Genocide Convention? Never Forget is nothing but an empty slogan to the diplomats at the UN. Sounds great, but when push comes to shove and actions need to be taken to stop a genocide before it the butchers' bill can be fulfilled, dithering and inaction rule the day.

Sure, many turn their eyes to the US to see if it will take action to save the people of Darfur. And the US has not done enough, even though it has done more than most - providing the logistical support for the African Union that wants out.

As this threatens to become a regional conflict, Chad and Ethiopia may end up taking matters into their own hands, and deal with the Sudanese government, which is behind much of the violence.

Technorati: darfur, dafur, UN, sudan, chad, janjaweed, and Kofi Annan